Just another day
by Tori Aoshiro
Summary: Series of one-shots about an AU where the gems are high school students. Chapter 3 : The aquatic labyrinth. During her first swimming lesson, Peridot realizes she lacks a very important item : prescription goggles.
1. The damsel with glasses

Peridot sighed, carefully moving her body to reach a more comfortable position in the cramped space, trying not to get even more stuck in the process. Her back laid against the cold and thin wall, she slowly let herself slide to the ground, folding her small legs against her chest, rasping her heels against the floor with a metallic sound. She grabbed the phone in her pocket and opened the recorder application.

"Peridot, log date 12 3 15, 15:30. I'm stuck in my locker. Again." She added angrily. "The culprit is probably one of the many troublemaker students infesting this school, though I haven't had time to identify him or her." She paused for a second, reevaluating the events. "However, today's situation is slightly more difficult than the usual since my tools are in the bag I left on the ground next to the locker. The bully might have stolen it, like he or she did three weeks ago." She paused again and thought for a bit. "I have no other option than to wait for professor Diamond to finish her lessons of the day. Then I'll call her and ask her to free me. Until then I'll…"

"Yo, dude, everything alright in there?" Startled, Peridot almost dropped her phone at the mocking voice right outside the locker. A voice she knew just a bit too well, for it was the only one she paid attention to when the wrestling team walked down the corridors. Panic started to raise in her chest like bubbles in a soda can, no way she'd let HER of all people see her like this.

"I-er… I-I'm fine. Just… I…" No good, she had to come up with a decent sentence. She heard the voice laugh loudly from the other side of the locker's door and blushed. Great, now she was even more ridiculous.

"Oh my gosh, calm down." She said, still laughing. "Come on, I'll let you out. Tell me the combination."

"I-I…" Peridot didn't know what to do but she couldn't pretend to like being trapped in there, or to know how to get out. It was very humiliating but she'll have to accept her help. "3141." She said, unwillingly. She heard a few clicks and the door opened. A tan face surrendered by unbelievably long pale purple hair appeared in the corridor's electric lamp's light. Joyful eyes, round cheeks, a proud and bold smile; she was short and plump, with as much muscle as fat in her body and such confidence that she couldn't look like anything but beautiful. Amethyst, the best wrestler in the school's team.

She reached out her hand for Peridot to grab and pulled her out with a smug smile. "Oh, it's you Peri! I thought I recognized that voice." she said.

Peridot opened surprised eyes from behind her glasses. "You mean you know my name?"

"Well duh! We're in the same class, you nerd!" She laughed again, snorting a bit. "And who could forget a know-it-all like you, right? You're the only one answering questions during class!"

"… Right." Peridot said slowly. Her hands instinctively looked for a notebook to hug but she had nothing with her. They only fidgeted in front of her, uneasy with emptiness. "Anyway, thank you for helping me."

"Don't mention it, Peri, it's nothing. Besides, it was funny hearing you making your nerd notes." Peridot blushed harder, both flustered and annoyed, and avoided Amethyst's eyes by looking around for her bag. Luckily, it still laid on the ground next to her locker. She quickly picked it up. "Hey, you got anything to do before the end of the day?"

Peridot looked up, surprised by the question. "No. But I was going to study at the school library."

"Cool! P, G and I are going to Rose's place in an hour, wanna tag along?"

A stupid amount of hope mixed with fear and uncertainty filled Peridot's heart. She mentally shook it off, tried to control herself. "I don't think I should… I have to study and your friends might not like to have an uninvited guest." Not to mention she really wasn't at ease around people, or things, or anything she didn't know. Amethyst's thick lips shortened in a pout.

"Aw, come on, it IS a study session, it won't change your plans so much. With you it'd at least be a bit funnier!" Peridot didn't answer, unsure and almost – okay, very flattered from the proposition and the regards the young girls seemed to have for her. Amethyst rolled her eyes and smiled a bit again, shrugging casually. "'Kay, you know what? Fine, just come if you feel like it. See ya later, nerd!" she said as she turned and left through the corridor. Peridot watched her go and turned to her locker to change the combination. She though for only a few moments before changing it to 1203, blushing a little bit. Then she reached for her phone and opened the recorder application.

" Peridot, log date 12 3 15, 15:45. I'm out. And… Amethyst knows my name."


	2. Rose's Palace

Rose Quartz's house was just like her, big, beautiful and comforting. It was a suburban house that had sprouted from the ground, God knows how, between a playground and a tall building. Flowers pots at the windows, which white curtains flew in the breeze like a ship's sails, spilled their green on the beige rendering. Ivy and climbing vine dressed the short wall that separated the threshold from the street. The sun was eating the color of the old red roof tiles and the landing's bricks.

In the garden, behind the house, the party was barely starting. It wasn't a very big garden but it was nice. Neatly pruned rose bushes grew under the windows, already showing their first buds. There was a small patch of raspberries and strawberries on one end, right before a round oleander. Daisies, dandelions and other wild flowers the young woman hadn't had the heart to cut were sprinkled on the fresh grass where Amethyst and Pearl were arranging the tables and chairs, in the shade of a plane tree. Actually, Pearl was arranging and Amethyst was moving under the perfectionist's orders, grouching when she asked an umpteenth adjustment.

"You know, it won't kill us if the tables aren't symmetrical."

"You don't understand, it's about the presentation!"

"Ugh, but do you have to make a fuss each time we're here? Come one, we're not having the Queen of England over!"

"This has nothing to do with what we're talking about! Oh well, I guess I cannot expect you to understand…"

Amethyst gnashed her teeth, ready to reply something when she was stopped by a soft yet firm voice.

"Don't fight, girls, they're just tables." She appeared in the door frame, tall and proud, two empty glasses in each hand. Rose lived up to her name with her huge pink curls. Her black wolf eyes were drowning in a chubby smiling face, all made of soft curves, same as her body. That day, a baggy white dress was covering her round belly. She scanned the garden, as smiling as ever. "Thanks for setting everything up."

"Oh, that's only natural, Rose!" claimed Pearl as she quickly grabbed the glasses she held in her hands to go set them, two by two, on the tables.

"Garnet isn't here yet?" Amethyst asked as she landed in one of the chairs.

Rose didn't have the time to open her mouth: the doorbell chimed inside the house, causing the young woman to giggle. "It seems like she is! I'll go get her. Pearl, would you go get the juice and biscuits?"

"Of course!" Pearl said as she walked to the kitchen.

Rose walked back inside and towards the front door she opened with a huge welcoming smile. She was surprised to find not one but two young girls waiting before the gate.

Garnet was wearing her leather jacket, gloves and her eternal sunglasses. Her thick black mane surrounded an angular and self-assured face. She had a hand resting on the shoulder of another girl, much smaller in spite of her platform shoes and messy blond hair, who seemed quite uneasy. "Sorry I'm late, Peridot needed help to get here."

"That's incorrect, I… I didn't want to travel alone, it's against security rules." She denied. She was hugging a physics book against her chest like a stuffed animal and was wearing big glasses with green frames.

"Oh, very well!" said Rose, slightly surprised yet welcoming. Amethyst had told her she had invited a friend but she wasn't expecting them to be Peridot Berde, a follower of the student council. And Peridot didn't seem to know at whose place she was going at either, from the look she was sending her.

Silence sat between them for a few moments until the young woman stepped out of the way. "Well, come in, you two."

"Uh, actually, miss Quartz…" Peridot started as Garnet walked in without further ado.

"Don't worry, Peridot." Rose quickly interrupted her with a small smile. "I'm not a teacher, her. You can call me Rose. Come in, quick."

Peridot nervously stomped her feet for a few seconds before rushing inside, followed by the amused laugh of her biology teacher.

The inside of the house was charming, both pretty and cozy, though a little bit messy. There were doilies on the tables and flowerpots on the doilies. The remains of a pillow fort lay on the couch. Biscuit jars were placed here and there, at the mercy of greedy hands. Musical instruments clustered the laundry. Peridot slowed down as she entered the living room, letting Rose lead the way. She was growing more and more nervous. Being in the house of a professor, professor Quartz on top of that! Just being there made her feel like a filthy rebel.

Voices echoed from the garden as Rose and Peridot went through the back door. Amethyst, in the middle of a discussion with Garnet and Pearl, looked up at them and a sparkle lighted her eyes. "Seriously? Nerdy Peri actually came!"

"Apparently?" Peridot said, embarrassed. She didn't really know where to sit but she didn't have to think about it for too long. Amethyst got up and threw her almost roughly on one of the chairs as her backpack fell in a very cartoony way.

"And I thought I'd have to draw on Pearl's notebook to not get bored again!" snickered the wrestler. Peridot heard herself chortle with her as Pearl raised a disdainful face, arms elegantly crossed on her sea green dress.

"I didn't know I was boring you this much, Amethyst." Rose interfered as she filled glasses of fruit juice. She gave one to Peridot who took it, slightly puzzled. The young girl with purple hair shrugged and Rose didn't insist. She sat in a chair with a relieved sigh. "So! What do we have to do today? Garnet, you told me the juniors had a literature test, next week?"

"Yes, but it isn't actually this important. I'd rather keep studying trigonometry." Since she was already set, Pearl proposed to help her friend. Rose helped them get organized as Peridot, a little bit lost, turned to Amethyst.

"They aren't at the same level as we are?"

"Nah, G is a junior and P is a senior."

"Then why are you studying together if you don't have the same classes?"

"Duh, because it's more fun!" Peridot gave her a doubtful look and Amethyst lifted an eyebrow. "You mean you never studied with someone from another class? You have at least studied with someone, right?"

"Not exactly?" Peridot hesitated. "I've had a private teacher?"

Amethyst looked at her for a second before bursting from laughter again. "You actually have things to learn, P-dot!"

Peridot blushed. "I can just study on my own, I wasn't prepared."

"Oh no you don't! I didn't ask you to come for you to ignore me!" Amethyst took her book from her hands and set it on the table. "You were going to study those electricity lessons for the next test?"

"Yes." Said Peridot.

"Perfect! I didn't get it at all!" Amethyst smiled and Peridot literally felt her eyes fill themselves with stars. "We'll do all of it together!"


	3. The aquatic labyrinth

"No. No, no, no, that can't be, no," quickly whispered Peridot in the intimacy of the cubicle, frenetically searching her bag as she mechanically tapped the floor's humid tiles with her bare feet.

The young girl wasn't generally a big fan of physical activities. She was rather designed for web exploration and lab work, even if she hated to add fuel to the fire of stereotypes about Asians. She was quickly breathless and didn't run a lot, feared to be hit and avoided balls during games, though that wasn't hard, considering how short she was. Moreover, she had to wear glasses not to run into every wall because of how near-sighted she was. The problem was glasses aren't compatible with all physical activities, and of course the PE teacher HAD to choose swimming, this trimester.

Peridot had nothing against swimming – who doesn't love to paddle in a hardly warm stagnant liquid for two hours straight and to go back and forth running into their classmates every time all while trying not to drown, tell me? The only problem was she needed prescription goggles. And those goggles she had just gotten from the optician weren't in her bag.

"Where are they, I can't have forgotten them! I DON'T forget my stuff, no sir!" she grumbled, biting the end of her thumb – she always did that when there was no pen around.

"Hey, Peri, is that you?" Peridot jumped when she heard Amethyst's joyful voice outside the cubicle, among the excited chirping of the other girls walking to the pool. "Got locked inside something again?"

"No, no." the little blond mechanically answered before slapping her own face. Amethyst was joking, why did she think for a second her question was serious?

"You sure everything is okay?" There, now she knew something was wrong, good job, Nerdy Peri.

"Of course I'm sure, just a little issue with my swimming cap, hurry up and go."

"Okay, whatever. Hurry up." Peridot sighed. Now what? She could try to go and swim without her glasses. When she was in the water, it wasn't such a big deal, she'd run into her classmates anyway. If she could get to the swimming pool without making a fool of herself, everything would be alright. Yes, she'd just tell herself that. Trying not to shake, Peridot took the glasses away from her face and put them in their case.

Everything was blurry like a low-quality movie, how awful. Peridot had to bent down to see what she was putting in her bag. She grabbed the strap with one hand, her towel and shoes with the other and pushed the cubicle's door. She was immediately jostled by three girls with pixilated faces but through a miracle managed not to fall. Thank god, Amethyst must already be at the pool, the worse wouldn't happen. Peridot didn't like to look ridiculous, especially in front of someone she held in high regards.

She felt her way with her feet to the bench where she left her bag and shoes. Her towel fell. She grouched when her head hit something - probably the coat rail – as she tried to pick it up. She searched the ground, lowering herself the best she could, before she found the runaway object right under her nose. It had probably just fell on the bench. She took it, rolled it up and slipped it under her arm. Good, now she just had to walk to the pool.

Oh, havens.

Where was the pool?

Peridot bit her finger again. The few late girls, like her, were paying as little attention to her as usual, their unstopping babbling resonating against the slippery floor; maybe they wouldn't notice her as she searched. Sure, she could ask for directions. But she still had her dignity, thank you very much, she didn't want everyone to know she couldn't see two feet away.

She reached out to touch the smooth and a little bit sticky wall with her fingertips. Nothing was moving on her left, and there was some sort of dark opening a few feet away. Well, that was probably the end of the changing room, the pool would be on the other side. Her towel under her arm, she walked carefully, avoiding as much as possible the shoes and bags scattered around like a minefield. It was quite difficult, actually, and she reached her goal breathless and stressed. He prayed for the door she'd found not to be a closet and turned the handle.

The good news was the ground was still tiled, so she hadn't accidently returned to the building's front room. The bad news was it was much darker and that didn't help her vision. The showers, maybe? That meant she was on the right path. The room seemed empty. Peridot reached out again and decided to follow the wall to the next door.

She walked carefully, following the little creases dug by the tiles, rather proud of herself, to be honest! Her hand suddenly met an object, some sort of small metal sphere. A door handle? Gosh, she couldn't see a thing around here.

Ah, no, it wasn't a door handle. Peridot let out a shriek that sounded like a cat's yowling and jumped back when she was splashed by the shower's cold water. For some reason, she was far less proud right now. Ugh, apparently, the world hated her that day. She buried her face in her towel and waited for the sound of running water to stop.

When the way was clear, she felt her way to the wall again, trying not to slip on the wet tiles. This time, she made absolutely sure, with a resentful obsession, NOT to touch the buttons lining up along the wall. And when she finally found a door handle – a real one, this time – he prudently walked to the side, just in case, before she pulled. A ray of light blinded her for a second but from the sound of discussions, she thought it was indeed the pool. At least, until a cry made her jump and let go of the door. "No, Peri, stop!"

"Amethyst?" Peridot turned around. Well, she couldn't see her face, but there was no doubt on who this huge purple mane belonged to. The wrestler obviously didn't care about the rules concerning swimming caps at the public pool, but it seemed she had at least tied it into a ponytail.

She walked closer and Peridot could see her face a bit better as she felt her hand on her shoulder. She seemed almost worried, but at the same time her entire face was twisted in the expression of someone desperately trying to repress her laughter. "That's the boy's changing room. You don't wanna go in there, trust me. Come here."

"Huh, thanks?" Peridot said was she was pulled behind her classmate without knowing what to think. They walked through the showers and ended up in a large and bright space where Peridot easily made out the empty pool and the students making some noise on the benches. Amethyst guided Peridot by the shoulder and sat her down right before the teacher started calling the roll.

"You know it's okay to ask for help, sometimes, right?" Amethyst chuckled silently.

"I don't see what you are talking about," Peridot denied. "I was doing fine."

"Right, and you didn't get a cold shower…"

"Y-you…" Peridot felt her face go red from shame. "You were watching?"

"I saw you walk out the cubicle and you were so funny I followed you." Amethyst confirmed with a smiled that explained a lot about how difficult it had been for her not to burst out laughing, so Peridot chose not to insist. The small blond wanted to curl up on herself but that was counting without Amethyst who rubbed her swimming cap with a malicious grin. "But you're right, you were doing fine for someone who can't see her feet. You'll lend me your glasses, some day?"

Peridot chose not to answer.


End file.
